


Above and Beyond

by helsinkibaby



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Age Difference, Community: 1-million-words, F/M, Future Fic, Het, Rare Pair, Romance, Spoilers for season three finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-28
Updated: 2017-05-28
Packaged: 2018-11-06 01:35:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11025840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: Joe intends to warn Caitlin about the new man in her life, but his intervention takes a turn he didn't expect.





	Above and Beyond

**Author's Note:**

> For the one million words M Night Shyamalan quotes challenge.  
> Prompt : 7. "I'm not supposed to say, but, he's done awful things to people and he'll do awful things to you."

When Caitlin answered the door and saw Joe standing there, she blinked, looking surprised. Not that Joe could blame her - in all the time he'd known her, he'd never been to her apartment before so to call unannounced was unusual in the extreme. "Joe!" Her mouth was open as if she was going to say something else but then she closed it and he wondered if maybe he should have called first. Then again, she didn't take her eyes off his so maybe there wasn't anyone else there. 

He hoped. 

"Hey, Caitlin. Is this a bad time?" 

She shook her head, stepped back to let him in. "Not at all, I just wasn't expecting anyone." Which he guessed was true - since she'd been back in town, even though she'd been welcomed back into the fold at STAR Labs, she'd still held herself at a certain remove from most of the team. Iris had only been saying last week that she hadn't seen Caitlin's new place yet, and Joe couldn't remember the last time he'd seen her at one of their gatherings, be it at Iris and Barry's place or his own house. On the occasions that he had, strangely enough, she'd gravitated more towards his company than his kids, which was the reason that Iris had strong armed him into this visit. "Come in." 

He did as he was told, took his coat off and hung it up on the coat stand beside hers. When he turned back to her, her arms were crossed over her chest and her head was tilted to one side. "So, to what do I owe the pleasure?" There was the slightest tinge of steel in her voice that told him she had a very good idea what he was actually doing there and he found himself wondering, not for the first time, why exactly he'd let Iris talk him into this. He'd thought himself immune to her puppy dog eyes since she was at least four years of age and had been begging for a horse of her own. 

"Barry and Iris asked me to have a word." 

Those few words were all she would have needed to confirm her suspicions and she laughed, threw her head back as she did so. Her long white hair spilled over her shoulders and for just a moment, he saw Killer Frost. But then she looked at him and her lips were curled in genuine amusement and she wasn't quite Caitlin of old but she was definitely the new Caitlin once more. "So you're the latest in the intervention squad?" 

Joe held up a hand. "It's not like that-" 

Except it was and they both knew it. "Cisco doesn't surprise me. I expect it from him. Barry and Iris, sure. But you?" 

Truth be told, it was surprising Joe too and he reached up to rub his forehead. "Caitlin, I've worked with Jack for years... I know he can be... charming..." It was not his first choice of adjective. It wasn't even his second, or third, or fourth, but his first few choices were words that he didn't like using at all, let alone in mixed company. Because the simple truth was that to say that Caitlin's new man had the morals of an alley cat would be doing a serious disservice to morals of alley cats everywhere and that was being kind. 

Again, Caitlin laughed. "So they sent you here to warn me off him?" She pushed her hair back behind her ears only to have a couple of strands break loose when she shook her head. "I can't believe this." 

"We just don't want to see you get hurt." Joe tried for conciliatory, knowing that this particular conversation with Cisco had ended up with flashing white eyes and the clack of heels on tiled floors as Caitlin had stormed out of STAR Labs. 

Caitlin pressed her lips together, letting out a long breath as she did so. "I understand why they don't get it," she said. "But I thought you might." 

Joe was lost. "Get what?" 

"Joe, don't you think I know what Jack is like?" Caitlin dropped down onto her couch, looked up at him with hands spread wide. "I'm not dreaming of the two of us settling down with a white picket fence and a couple of dogs... I knew exactly what I was getting into with him." 

Joe blinked. That thought had never occurred to him, or anyone else for that matter. "Then why-" 

"You were alone for a long time before Cecile." Caitlin says his ex's name flatly, bluntly, without any of the sympathy and pitying looks he's become used to. Maybe that's why it doesn't sting for once. "You're telling me you never once got involved with someone just so you could remember what it felt like? To have someone touch you, to have someone look at you that way? To feel wanted?" He was about to point out that Julian would have had her back in a heartbeat or less but she wasn't done. "Someone who doesn't know the details of your sad back story, but sees you as you are, right then and there?" 

And just like that, he found himself nodding because he did understand. Because before Cecile, there had indeed been the occasional date, the even more occasional one night stand, not something he was proud of but nevertheless something had had happened. And his reasons for those had been the very ones Caitlin had just articulated, the need to feel, even if only for a little while, less alone. In the time since he and Cecile had split up, he'd be lying if he said he hadn't felt the same way and hearing Caitlin speak so openly about it brought all those emotions front and centre. 

It must have shown on his face because the edges of Caitlin's lips turned up, her shoulders relaxing. "You do understand." But there was no triumph in her tone. Instead, she just sounded sad. Weary even.

"Yes, I understand." Even to his own ears, his voice was heavy because there was something else brewing in his chest, something else apart from understanding. He just couldn't name it yet. "But it's different for you." 

Her laugh was harsh, mocking, enough like Killer Frost to raise hairs on the back of his neck. "Because I'm a woman?" Her tone matched her laugh. "What kind of-"

"Because you deserve better." His words cut across hers, made her jaw drop even as her eyes narrowed. "You deserve more." 

Those eyes were lasers boring into his. "You don't get to decide what's best for me." She flung the words at him like a dagger. "You're not my father." 

"I know. That's the problem." 

The words were out before he could stop them, before he could think about them, and with them, the feelings, plural he realised now, that he'd been struggling to name. 

Jealousy. 

Attraction. 

Something that had started way back, during the long nights sitting at Barry's bedside, forgotten in the Team Flash days, remembered, if only vaguely, since her return when she'd taken to appearing at his side during group nights. He remembered too, how he'd found out about her and Jack, how he'd seen them walking out of the precinct one evening hand in hand, remembered how his stomach clenched at the sight. He'd told himself that it was because of Jack's reputation, now he knew he'd been lying to himself. 

But Caitlin didn't know any of that, couldn't read his thoughts. "What?" She was staring at him like she'd never seen him before, rose to her feet with her hands clenched by her side. "What are you-"

And then he wasn't across the room from her any more, he was in front of her with no clear memory of moving. His hands were on her hips as he pulled her close to him, pressed his lips against hers before sanity caught up with him. He sensed her surprise, her shock, in the way she stiffened against him and he mentally prepared himself for a push away, possibly accompanied by a blast of frost. 

Then he heard a tiny moan from the back of her throat as her mouth opened to his and her tongue swept across his lips. 

Then she was pulling him backwards, sinking down onto the couch and pulling him with her and he didn't think for a long time after that, just felt. 

He made her come three times before he was finally able to think clearly again. First was on the couch, his fingers working their way under her skirt, moving against her until she was writhing underneath him, muttering words he never would have guessed she knew. The second was against the door of her bedroom when they'd made it that far and he'd run out of patience, had pushed her against it before dropping to his knees in front of her. Her hands had fallen to the back of his head, fingernails scoring through his hair as she'd guided him to exactly where she wanted him and the mutters from the couch were transformed into gasps of pleasure. Her third time had been his first, lying in her bed, clothes tossed who knew where and caring even less as he braced his arms on the bed and moved inside her. She matched him stroke for stroke, quickly establishing a slow yet satisfying rhythm and because it was the third time, he'd figured out her tells, knew when she was getting close. It meant that he could pull back, delay her release and he did that more than once until she was panting and breathless, digging her nails into his back and from the sting he felt, he knew she was going to leave a mark. Only then did he give her what he knew she wanted, what he knew she needed and she came around him with a gasp, his own release following not long after. 

When he did come back to himself, she was lying against his side, their legs tangled together, her hair spilling over his chest. One of his hands traced idle patterns on her shoulder, the other was holding hers, resting on his heart. "If this was an intervention," she said, her voice slightly muffled by his skin, "you certainly went above and beyond." 

He heard the teasing note in her voice and it made him laugh aloud. Kissing the top of her head, he matched her teasing with some of his own. "I took one for the team," he drawled and she lifted her head, moved it so that her chin was on his chest and she could stare up into his eyes. 

"Just one?" It was said in that same teasing voice but he could see the serious question in her eyes too. Fortunately, he knew exactly how he wanted to reply to it. 

"If you need further convincing..." His hand moved down from her shoulder to her elbow and from there dropped to her hip, slid around to the small of her back before beginning to slowly move back up again. "I'm sure that could be arranged." 

She shifted one leg so that it was draped over his hip, then moved so that she was straddling him in one smooth motion. Both his hands went to her hips without any conscious thought on his part; moving them up to cup her breasts as she rocked gently against him, her eyes fluttering shut, was purely intentional. "I'm not entirely sure..." Her breath caught as his fingers found what he already knew to be a sensitive spot. "That you made your point." 

He nodded as if he was giving serious consideration to her words. "So... further investigation required?" 

"I think so." Her lips were curled in a smile but that changed to a gasp when one of his hands moved lightly between her legs, very close to where she would have wanted him. A ragged whisper of, "Please," slipped out before she bit her lip, rocking against him with more intent this time, bracing her hands on his chest as she did so. 

Shifting his finger the merest fraction resulted in a moan that she hastily stifled. Which, he instantly decided, wouldn't do at all. Applying the tiniest bit more pressure, his other hand cupping her breast, thumb circling her nipple, he said, his voice low and gravelly, even to his own ears, "It's ok, Caitlin... you can let go. I've got you." Pulling himself up, he pressed an open mouthed kiss to the junction of her neck and shoulder. "I see you," he breathed into her skin and just like that, he felt her shudder, heard her moan and he coaxed her through the aftershocks, lips travelling along her collarbone. 

His forehead resting against hers, he ran his hands down her back as her breathing returned to normal. "I take it," he said, "asking you to dinner wouldn't be out of line?" 

She smiled, cupped his cheek and kissed him again. "Out of order, maybe," she allowed and he couldn't deny that. "But out of line? Not at all." She tilted her head, a mischievous look suddenly in her eyes. "I just hope Jack won't be too broken hearted..." 

From what Joe knew of the other man, he seriously doubted it. "Fuck Jack," he growled and she yelped as he pulled her down, rolling them so that he was lying on top of her. 

"Nope," she said as her arms went around his neck, one of them moving up to cup the back of his head. "I've had a better offer." 

She kissed him then and Joe had to admit, he liked the sound of that. 

Dinner turned out to be takeout, eaten in her bed. 

He liked that even more.


End file.
